Off the beaten path, but now in the guidebooks

Smoque can thank Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," plus mentions in Bon Appetit and the New York Times, for its tourist appeal. "We're pretty lucky, for a little barbecue place," says co-owner Barry Sorkin.

On any given Saturday, about 30% of the crowd waiting to spend $2.50 on a Hot Doug's hot dog is from out of town. And sometimes way out of town: Owner Doug Sohn remembers a Brazilian couple who flew to Chicago from Miami, cabbed to Hot Doug's for lunch, then went back to O'Hare to catch a flight home.

"It's sort of mind-boggling," says Mr. Sohn, 49, who opened his Roscoe Village hot dog stand a decade ago and preserves its lunch-only, closed-on-holidays policy. "We're in the guidebooks now."

Neighborhood and even cult restaurants — the list includes but is hardly limited to Kuma's Corner, Violet Hour, Spacca Napoli, Urban Belly, Belly Shack and Longman & Eagle — are indeed in the guidebooks now. They're also in magazines, and they're on TV. Travelers seek them out as eagerly as they seek a reservation at Alinea.

Smoque, a barbecue restaurant in Mayfair, can thank a 2007 feature on Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," plus mentions in Bon Appetit and the New York Times, for its tourist appeal. "We're pretty lucky, for a little barbecue place," says co-owner Barry Sorkin.

Tourists hail from all over: "I'll never forget the woman who called and said, 'Hi, I just got off the plane from South Africa; how do I get to your place?' " says Mr. Sorkin, 41.

Tourists, he notes, behave differently than locals. Dinner is the focal point of their evening, and they order a lot of food. "They've spent the money to travel — they're not going to shortchange themselves on the meal," Mr. Sorkin says. They buy t-shirts and hats, and they ask Mr. Sorkin to call them a cab back to their hotel. "We're not a great cab neighborhood," he says.

Locals still account for the bulk of business, but tourists "are great customers," Mr. Sorkin says. "We love that they're here for the food, nothing else."

Nick Lessins and his wife, Lydia Esparza, opened Great Lake, a 12-seat pizza place in Andersonville, in 2008. The restaurant is open for four hours an evening, Tuesday through Saturday; Mr. Lessins makes each pizza himself. Shortly after its opening, GQ restaurant critic Alan Richman called Great Lake the best pizza in the country.

The tourist reaction was immediate, and overwhelming. "That was sort of crazy," recalls Mr. Lessins, 46. "It was kind of rough for a few months."

Out-of-towners now account for roughly half of business, he estimates. "It's great," he says. "It's allowed us to stay open and pay bills."

Tourists, he says, "value the experience more because they're coming from farther away."

Gene & Jude's, a hot dog stand in River Grove, is the latest beneficiary of good food press. Serious Eats, a food lovers' blog, named Gene & Jude's hot dogs the best in the country, and the restaurant was featured in the March issue of "Every Day with Rachael Ray."

Tourist business has jumped since the award was announced, "especially for this time of year," says General Manager Dan Ciancio, who recalls a recent group of Australian tourists. He can't always tell tourists from locals — until they start with the questions.